Editorial: Weighing the Big Dig’s worth

Wednesday

Dec 26, 2007 at 12:01 AMDec 26, 2007 at 6:20 PM

Was it worth it? Was it worth the two decades of frustration and gridlock and detours? Was it worth the five deaths attributed to the project, four workers and a motorist on her way to the airport? Was it worth the scores of civil and criminal cases that have been filed already and, with a window still open for litigation and prosecution, surely more to come?

Was it worth it? Was it worth the two decades of frustration and gridlock and detours?

Was it worth the five deaths attributed to the project, four workers and a motorist on her way to the airport?

Was it worth the scores of civil and criminal cases that have been filed already and, with a window still open for litigation and prosecution, surely more to come?

Was it worth the nearly $15 billion dollars, more than five and a half times the initial cost in 1982, to build an eight-lane tunnel that saves drivers about 17 minutes on average traveling through the city?

On Monday, the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel Project -- known far and wide as The Big Dig -- will officially come to an end 25 years after planning began, and we doubt there will be much champagne flowing in commemoration of the country's most expensive construction project and second in the world only to China's Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River.

When the project, a joint venture between construction giant Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, becomes the sole responsibility of the Turnpike at the stroke of midnight on Dec. 31, we can finally silence the refrain about judging the engineering marvel on its merits once it's completed. We can begin to judge.

Designed to carry the nearly 250,000 cars daily that the 50-year-old eyesore Central Artery could no longer handle, the Big Dig was intended to not only make the ride from Neponset to Charlestown smoother and quicker, it expanded to make traveling to Logan Airport easier. Once the Central Artery infrastructure was removed, the parts of Boston once bisected from the waterfront by the old highway would be reunited and open space and sunshine would become plentiful for the old city on a hill.

Much of that was accomplished but it is a fair question to ask: Was it all necessary?

The tunnels have been closed to repair thousands of water leaks and inspect faulty concrete ceiling panels after one let loose from its anchor last year and crushed Milena Del Valle of Hyde Park.

Two turnpike directors have been ousted because of their ineptness in overseeing the Big Dig, including one who tried to hide $1.4 billion in cost overruns, a move that made Congress cap the federal contribution.

Much good has come, however. Civil engineers now know they can manage such large-scale projects without shutting down a city. The supports slid underneath the Amtrak tracks to prevent collapse while the tunnel was being built beneath was ingenious. The construction of the tunnel under the Fort Point Channel left no margin for error.

But what it comes down to is the Big Dig will itself be obsolete and not worth a penny if we don't do something to change our habits and put more support into public transportation.

Then, in a few more decades, when we look at our transportation needs, we hopefully can say we got our money's worth.